What;s the point of RAID 1?

**ClickHere2Surf.com** · June 14th, 2002, 12:32 PM

Seriously what is the point of RAID 1? I know you're all gonna say it's for security/backup. But honestly, the chances of one of the hard drives crashing is so small compared to the chances of getting a virus or loosing data in another way. I asked someone if he backed up his PC and he says "of course" and I ask on what and he says "RAID 1, constant backup". I laughed at him, the day he gets a virus that deletes his info where the RAID won't help at all be cause it will just make the virus delete the info on the backup drive too, he'll see how good this "backup" method is.

So do people really use RAID 1 for backup? Because all it protects from is hard drive failure witch is very unlikely to happen compared to other ways you can loose data.

Thanks

**tech_wannabe** · June 14th, 2002, 02:10 PM

I use RAID 1 on my toy server at home for redundancy. At If I lose a drive on my toy server, I can still use the server until I replace the dead HD. Additionally, I have a weekly tape backup for other issues. As for hard drives not dying, where I work one of the students just lost a Trimesters worth of work due to a dead HD (wasn’t saving to the server, and it was a fairly new Pc). Last year out of 100+ of the older Dell GX1’s, 7 hard drives died.

Bye - KN

**MacGyver** · June 14th, 2002, 02:34 PM

RAID 1 or drive mirroring is good for mission critical applications (corporate email server for example) in case of mechanical drive failure, but obviously won't help in the event of human error (oops, I overwrote an important file) or hack or virus attack. I wouldn't do anything less than external media backup, but I guess RAID 1 is better than nothing at all.

**ephmynus** · June 14th, 2002, 03:31 PM

It is for what it is called, redundancy. Sure, anybody can keep great backups in case of failure but who wants to mess around with the downtime. If you have RAID 1, a disk goes bad, you have no downtime and you are able to take the bad disk out, copy over the files from your remaining hard drive and replace the bad one with no problems.

**-Senectus-** · June 24th, 2002, 10:03 PM

We use RAID1 for our system drives (they're also hot swap)
Its purely for redundancy..
Anyone who is using it for backup purposes... well, they havn't thought it through very well have they ;-)

**korpse** · June 25th, 2002, 06:54 AM

I guess your question is really whats the point of redundancy because I'm sure you feel the same way about RAID 5. Well you're right, RAID isn't going to help if somebody gets a virus that wipes out some important files (whether its RAID 1 or 5). In fact RAID isn't even recommended for client machines, you're better off performing occasional backups. However, RAID is very important for servers in which the server is set up initially and left on to do its job. In cases like this there is no need to worry about viruses. Hard drives WILL eventually crash, and RAID is the best, cheapest, and easiest way to recover when it happens.

**silencio** · June 25th, 2002, 11:08 AM

(zen voice) Your system is only as strong as your weakest link.

Do you want to be the guy who tells the boss "Well, we have to restore the whole thing from backup because I didn't mirror that boot drive. It'll only take a few hours."

In a server room where you have hundreds of drives running 24/7 many of them die suddenly and for no apparent reason.

**dr_jones** · July 6th, 2002, 05:50 PM

Hard drives have been known to die just occasionally

Redunancy is an essential part of any system. The time and money it takes to set up a raid1 array is nothing compared to the price and inconveinience paid for not..

**MaddMaxx** · July 6th, 2002, 06:43 PM

[QUOTE]if u are a home user and keep all your data on one drive , and your main o/s on another ,,,then with the costs of a cd-writer today and a 10 pack of disks ,,,,u should be happy ,,,,,but for buisness users ($= time) then this type of settup is needed ,,,,
-----------------------------------------------

Hmmm. How many "home users" have "data on one
drive and the main o/s on another? The typical
home user has one hard drive, period. Now, the
business user has raid for one reason only,
the prevention of Down Time. Backup is a separate
issue. And by the by, a "10 pack of cdrw's" is
not the answer to computer backup.

**NooNoo** · July 6th, 2002, 07:04 PM

For a home user? CDRW's are ideal, quick, simple and cheap.

**Matridom** · July 6th, 2002, 08:09 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by MaddMaxx:
Hmmm. How many "home users" have "data on one
drive and the main o/s on another? The typical
home user has one hard drive, period. Now, the
business user has raid for one reason only,
the prevention of Down Time. Backup is a separate
issue. And by the by, a "10 pack of cdrw's" is
not the answer to computer backup.<hr /></blockquote>There is a surprising amount of people who have multiple hard disks and are in home use environment. Most business systems only have one drive with data storage on the server where backup is critical.

For home backup the CDRW is ideal, cheap, fast and reliable, I don't see any problems with it.

**freddy** · July 6th, 2002, 08:13 PM

Matridom ,,i have removed my comments ,suggesting a CD-r as a backup ,,,,please see my comments in "comments and suggestions" ,,,,although we both agree on this method of backup.

**MaddMaxx** · July 7th, 2002, 02:55 AM

I failed to suggest an alternative to cd backup.
I am converting home and small business users
to Flash Memory. Faster, more stable, easier
storage, multiple uses (try stuffing a cd into
a camera, yes Sony does somehow), longer lasting,
and economical.

**Matridom** · July 7th, 2002, 05:49 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by MaddMaxx:
I failed to suggest an alternative to cd backup.
I am converting home and small business users
to Flash Memory. Faster, more stable, easier
storage, multiple uses (try stuffing a cd into
a camera, yes Sony does somehow), longer lasting,
and economical.<hr /></blockquote>Hmm.. let's see

I can pick up a spindle of 50 CDRW's for $40 CAN

<a href="http://WWW.dealsDirect.ca" target="_blank">WWW.dealsDirect.ca</a>

Plextor 40X IDE CD-ReWriter RETAIL (TM)
- comes with Princo 48X 50-CDR Spindle

$228.75 CAN

That's $.07 cents a meg to start, with additional $.01 per meg there after. Media is ALSO reusable

Compact flash card, 256 megs, $209 can

That's $.81 per meg. I'd say CD's are a lot cheaper.

The only way these might not be true are in laptops, but for those, microdrives will be more effective then flash cards. The microsdrive can also be used in most digital cameras

**MaddMaxx** · July 7th, 2002, 08:34 AM

Just purchased a couple of 320meg flash cards
at $116 each. That's in the 36 cents range. Yep,
more expensive per meg. Reader (all that's required for hardware) is $15 vs. say $100 for
a decent cdrw. Can't "scratch" the Flash Memory
Card as you can a cd and ruin data. So it is
safer. In the classroom I toss them up and let
them hit the floor to prove durability. Am more
careful about that lately as one got caught up
in a ceiling fan and was promptly slung across the
room at high speed. The chip was fine, no damage
but I'm glad no student eyeball was in the way.

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